If You Are Easily Sidetracked

If you are sidetracked easily (as I am on most things), you can use that to your advantage: start cleaning one thing, then start organizing another. Whenever you walk from one room to another, carry something with you to where it belongs. Declutter in tiny bits and pieces, with variety to keep your interest up. You won't think you've accomplished anything, but little changes of habits like this will make a big difference in the long run: At least the mess won't build up and continue getting worse.

You probably also need a centralized place (even a shoebox on your desk) to put unpaid bills and stuff so they won't get buried. You can keep the shoebox on your lap as you watch TV, and write checks or fill out forms during commercials and boring moments. I don't know if you're disorganized about bills, but if you have clutter on every surface, you might have that problem, too.

Also, take a few minutes a day to just wander around the room, and look for obvious things to throw out: Magazines you'll probably never get around to reading, outdated papers, things you think you "should" keep but don't need, etc., as well as things you can easily organize and put away.

To take care of the deeper mess, you can use the 30/30 plan (declutter or organize for 30 minutes, relax for 30 minutes, and continue), or you can challenge yourself to throw away as many things as you can in a certain period of time.

                           

The point is to work with your personality type, not against it, or let it stop you. If you try to take on a whole scheme at once (even the scheme I just outlined above), you'll never get started.